National Trends Show More Students Taking ACT Over SAT

The ACT  tests have started to win a national popularity test. According to a blog on the Washington Post, it has overtaken the SAT as the most popular college admissions exam in the United States.

A report information from FairTest showed that in 2012, the ACT has finally surpassed the more traditional SAT exams.

2011: 1,623,112 took the ACT; 1,647,123* took the SAT

2012: 1,666,017 took the ACT; 1,664,479* took the SAT

(* Once it saw that the number of ACT-takers had grown larger, based on a historically consistent measure, the College Board revised the 2010 SAT total upward by including more exam administrations, a practice it continued in 2011 and 2012.)

The SATs are still the more popular of the two tests in Spring-Ford Area School District, but there was an increase of nearly sixty test-takers in 2011. 

In 2010, students in Spring-Ford took far more SAT exams than ACT exams. According to reports from the Pennsylvania Department of Education, in 2010, 409 students took the SATs, while 156 took the ACT exam.

The report shows that in 2011, 427 students took the SATs, while 211 took ACT.

While the ACT exams are marginally tracking upward (i.e., more Spring-Ford students are taking the exam), the number is nowhere near surpassing the SAT figures, as they did nationally.

However, there was a larger increase from year to year for the ACTs - 55 more students took the test in 2011 than in 2010, while only 18 more students took the SATs.